Former Notre Dame linebacker Prince Shembo acknowledged Saturday that he was the ND player at the center of a 2010 investigation involving sexual assault allegations made by a Saint Mary’s College student who later committed suicide.

The player’s name had never been made public. Shembo was in Indianapolis on Saturday where he is participating in the NFL Combine, which is being held at Lucas Oil Stadium.

In September 2010, Saint Mary’s College freshman Lizzy Seeberg committed suicide after accusing a Notre Dame football player of sexually assaulting her in an ND residence hall. Notre Dame found the player’s actions did not violate its sexual misconduct policy and the player was not charged.

“I’m innocent,” Shembo told ESPN.com. “I didn’t do anything. I’m, pretty much, I’m the one who ended it and pretty much told the girl that we should stop, that we shouldn’t be doing this and that’s what happened. So, I don’t know.”

In a typed statement Seeberg made for police, Seeberg wrote that the accused male student grabbed her face and kissed her, pulled down her tank top, touched and squeezed her bare breasts, and held her down in his lap, all while she was crying and scared for her safety. A copy of the Sept. 5, 2010 statement was obtained by the Tribune.Shembo, according to the ESPN story, said when he heard that Seeberg had committed suicide, he had no idea what was going on.

“I was like, ‘What’s going on?’” he said. “I was a freshman. I don’t think games even started, and she was older than me.

“I was like, ‘What?’ I was confused. They were asking me questions, and I didn’t know what they were talking about because I didn’t do anything.”

Shembo told ESPN that he is making his first public comments now because Irish coach Brian Kelly “told me I couldn’t’ talk about it.”